Raider
Raider of the Kabal of the Splintered Talon]] Raiders prepare for a raid upon an Imperial world]] A Raider is a Drukhari anti-gravity combat skimmer that is used as the primary troop transport for Dark Eldar Kabal raids into realspace from the Webway. The first indicator of a Drukhari raid into realspace is always a viridian light in the sky, that unfolds and spirals outwards into a shimmering, multidimensional portal that blazes with green flame. Through this gateway comes dozens of bladed anti-gravity assault skimmers, that angle downwards to seize their unexpecting prey. The most common of these anti-gravity combat transports are known as Raiders. Raiders are the most favoured vehicles of the Dark Eldar and are in use across the galaxy. Lightweight and extremely manoeuvrable, the Raider epitomises the Dark Eldar's belief that velocity always triumphs over durability. Unlike the lumbering vehicles of the human Imperium, a Raider does not carry its passengers within heavily armoured ceramite shells. Instead, these skimmers are terrifying imitations of the gliding, anti-gravity pleasure yachts once common on the homeworlds of the ancient Aeldari Empire, modified to enhance their speed and fitted with blade-sharp fins and jagged keels to slice apart any foes. The primary motive power for a Raider comes from its compact, air-breathing jet turbine engines. The transport is held aloft by anti-gravity emitters built into the vehicle's ventral ribbing. This technology allows a Raider to skim even the most rugged terrain at an extraordinarily rapid speed. Though each of these transports is customised by the Kabal that owns it and is adorned with the severed body parts of past victims, all have certain basic features in common, including a repulsor keelblade manned by a talented steersman, Aethersails to harness the multidimensional shear energies that flow from the Webway portal from which they emerge, and a prow-mounted heavy weapon, usually a Dark Lance, to sow slaughter amongst the unexpecting enemy. The curved hull of every Raider possess sweeping fairings and its metal deck is pierced through with tesselating designs intended to lessen the skimmer's weight and increase its speed. Sickle-blades, Electroshock Rams and Splinter Rifle racks are also frequently mounted on Raiders, for the Dark Eldar will always use any weapon available in their vast arsenal of pain. Role The Raider's primary function is to serve as a troop transport during a realspace raid and it has a passenger capacity of 10 Drukhari warriors, whether they are drawn from a Kabal, a Wych Cult, a Haemonculi Coven or from one of the various mercenary Drukhari groups of the Commorragh. Such is the surety and confidence of its Drukhari occupants that they can hang onto the balustrades and trophy-hooks of the Raider with ease even as it races forward at breakneck speeds, rejoicing in the thrill of the hunt as the enemy's shrapnel bursts all around them. It takes them but a second to detach from the transport and drop into the midst of the enemy, already savoring the screams to come. Once the foe has been vanquished, any enemy survivors are lashed or chained to the Raider or even simply impaled, still living, upon its trophy hooks. The corpses of those Dark Eldar who died in the raid are also carried back to the Dark City with a distinct lack of dignity or sentiment, heaped in a bloody tangle of limbs or hung like macabre mannequins from the Raider's spiked hull. The Drukhari have no pity for the dead, whether their own or of other species. Sources *''Codex: Dark Eldar'' (5th Edition), pg. 44 es:Incursor (Eldars Oscuros) Category:R Category:Dark Eldar Category:Dark Eldar Skimmercraft Category:Dark Eldar Vehicles Category:Vehicles